1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container holding device attached to a person's body and, more specifically, to a body-attached cup holder which holds various types of beverage containers and can be attached to a person's thigh.
2. Description of the Related Art
The handling of beverage containers poses significant difficulties to people consuming beverages from them when their hands are needed for other tasks. These difficulties can arise in a number of situations, such as when driving a car or when viewing a sporting event. It is therefore desirable to have a device which enables a person to hold a beverage container without using the hands.
Many devices for enabling a person to hold an object without using one's hands have been disclosed in the relevant art. These have included devices for holding beverage containers which are attachable to a person's body, devices for holding beverage containers which are attachable to a person's clothing, and devices having a means for holding various objects which are attachable to a person's body.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,759, issued Jan. 14, 1964 to Jack Herer, discloses a device which is adapted to hold a baby's bottle and attach it to the baby's chest so that the bottle is held in an operative position for the baby's feeding. The bottle-holding device of Herer utilizes a body-encircling base member made of a resilient material to clip the bottle-holding portion of the device to the baby's chest.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,273, issued Nov. 24, 1987 to Brian T. Grant, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,696, issued Oct. 15, 1991 to Richard Lahr, disclose devices having beverage container receptacles which are adapted to be attached to a person's belt. The beverage container receptacles in both of the above-mentioned patents are formed by a plurality of container encircling bands dispose vertically above the container supporting base. Neither of the above-mentioned devices are adapted to be used by a person in a seated position.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,611, issued Feb. 19, 1991 to Rocco Longo, discloses a beverage container holder which is adapted to be attached to a person's neck. The beverage container holder of Longo utilizes a flexible neck-encircling ring attached to a container supporting member which has a serrated hole formed therein for gripping the sides of the container.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,838, issued Feb. 21, 1995 to Naser Jafarkhani, discloses another beverage container holder which is adapted to be attached to a person's neck. The beverage container holder of Jafarkhani utilizes a flexible neck-encircling strap attached to a T-shaped support member having a container encircling ring and a container supporting base extending perpendicularly therefrom.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,550,554, issued Apr. 24, 1951 to Bessie Virginia Griffin, discloses yet another neck-attached beverage container holder. The container holder of Griffin utilizes a generally U-shaped member which hooks around a person's neck to support a rigid container holding member in a position extending horizontally from the person's chest.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,340,006, issued Aug. 23, 1994 to Tianhou Li, discloses a head-supported beverage container holder which supports a beverage container in front of a person's mouth so that the beverage therein may easily be consumed through a straw. The beverage container holder of Li includes a serrated container gripping ring that is supported by a pair of support members strapped onto a person's head.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,905, issued Apr. 26, 1988 to Steve R. Nelson, discloses a beverage container holder in the form of a hat or helmet having a pair of beverage container receptacles mounted thereon. The beverage container holder of Nelson includes flexible plastic tubing which may be used to connect the beverage containers with a single plastic tube leading to the person's mouth so that the person may easily consume the beverages.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,992, issued Jul. 2, 1991 to Edward F. Murray, III, discloses a device adapted to hold various display items and attaches them to the person's body. The device of Murray, III utilizes a generally U-shaped head band made of a resilient material and a stem which attaches to the top thereof to hold the display items above the person's head.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,785,462, issued Mar. 19, 1957 to Joe Barg; U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,294, issued Jun. 8, 1993 to John L. Liston; and French Patent number 756,328 issued Sep. 18, 1933, disclose device for attaching various objects to a person's head. All three of the above devices employ an object-holding member and a head-encircling member.
However, none of the relevant art discloses a beverage container holder adapted to hold various types of beverage containers which has two resilient arms for clamping the beverage container holder onto a person's thigh.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either single in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention a claimed.